We have adapted this Croatian lamb peka recipe, from traditional cooking under the bell with hot embers to being slow-cooked in the oven.
We make it possible for everyone to bring the flavours of this Croatian national dish at home.
Melt in the mouth diced lamb cooked together with potatoes, vegetables, garlic, herbs, oil and white wine for 2 hours. This one-pot dinner recipe is Croatian food at its best; you'll love it!
What is a traditional peka?
A traditional Croatian lamb peka is a dinner recipe that the local's living along the Dalmatian Coast cooks at home for their family in an outdoor fireplace.
Lamb, Octopus, Chicken, Veal or Fish with potatoes and vegetables, drizzled with olive oil and wine in a cast iron or earthenware pot, placed over a fire and covered with a dome-shaped lid - known in Croatia as ‘ispod čripnje'.
The pot is covered with hot coals and embers over the top and slowly cooked under the bell for around 1 ½ hours, before more oil is added and cooked for 30 minutes more.
We are always keen to try the national dishes on our travels. In 2019 we went to Croatia, we came across a hidden gem of a restaurant, Tavern Donja Banda in Vrsine, near Split.
They had a fantastic choice of traditional Croatian food. We pre-booked our Lamb Peka, as 3 hours notice is needed to cook the national dish!
It was amazing and we also really enjoyed the locally produced white wine they served too!
How to make Croatian Lamb Peka in the oven?
See our step by step slide show for how to make a Croatian Lamb Peka in the oven.
You will find the ingredients and instructions on the recipe card below.
📖 Step by Step Recipe
Croatian Lamb Peka
Ingredients
- 600 grams Potatoes (1.3lb) - waxy potatoes (we used charlotte potatoes)
- 1 Courgette - chopped chunky
- 1 Carrot - large chopped
- 1 Pepper - green chopped chunky
- 1 small Aubergine - chopped chunky
- 1 large Onion - chopped chunky
- 850 gram Diced lamb (1.8lb) - shoulder or leg of lamb (deboned and cut into nice size chunks) or buy already diced
- 1 tablespoon Garlic Puree - or finely chopped fresh garlic
- 1 tablespoon Sundried Tomato Puree - or tomato puree
- 80 ml Olive oil (⅓ cup) - + extra 2 tablespoon for the last step
- Thyme, rosemary and sage - you can choose other fresh herbs you like
- 250 ml White wine (1 cup)
- Black pepper and salt - seasoning
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 200°C fan / 220°C / 425°F / Gas mark 7If you have not bought 850 gram Diced lamb (1.8lb), cut your lamb shoulder or leg into large chunks and place to one side.
- Make oil marinade - Mix 80ml of 80 ml Olive oil (⅓ cup) in a bowl with 1 tablespoon Garlic Puree, 1 tablespoon Sundried Tomato Puree Black pepper and salt.
- Add 600 grams Potatoes (1.3lb) and all the vegetables 1 Courgette, 1 Carrot, 1 Pepper, 1 small Aubergine, 1 large Onion into a large lidded casserole dish.
- Place diced lamb on top of the vegetables, pour the marinade and 250 ml White wine (1 cup) over the top.
- Add the Thyme, rosemary and sage , trying to keep the herbs on top. So you can easily remove the herb stalks once cooked.
- Place lid on the casserole dish and cook for 1hr 30 minute If you do not have a lid cover very well with kitchen foil
- Take the lid off, remove any thick herb stems. Stir in 2 tablespoon of olive oil.Cook for a further 20-30 mins.
- Serve with fresh homemade bread to dip into the juices.
Video
Nutrition
This post was originally published on 15/11/2019 and has been modified on 07/03/2025 with recipe card moved up for creating this Croatian national dish, Lamb Peka recipe.
Unfortunately, we don't have the luxury of an outdoor open fireplace. Although I know Luke would love one, our garden is not big enough to justify it! Besides, we don't get good enough weather to enjoy much Al Fresco cooking!
It is, for this reason, we made this Croatian recipe in the oven. It may not be cooked in the same way but, nevertheless it still utterly delicious!
Ingredients
Potatoes - We used small charlotte potatoes, but you can use any firm potatoes, including Jersey Royals, Viktoria, Anya or Yukon Gold. If using larger potatoes, chop them first.
Vegetables – We used a lot of vegetables, courgette, carrot, pepper green, aubergine, red onion.
Feel free to use less or experiment with other vegetables of your choice.
In true Mediterranean fashion, a lot of olive oil is needed for this dish.
I am not sure what special extras the Croatians added to their Peka, we decided to flavour ours with sundried tomato puree, garlic puree, black pepper and salt, mixed in with plenty of olive oil.
You can buy diced lamb for this recipe. Or cut big chunks of lamb off the leg or shoulder.
Although we have chosen to use lamb, you can switch for Octopus, Chicken, Veal or Fish.
Pour the olive oil and puree mix all over the lamb and vegetables,
Followed by white wine, pour yourself a glass too. There is going to be a long wait for this slow-cooked dinner!
Next, choose your favourite herbs; we used a mixture of sage, thyme and rosemary.
The rosemary and thyme stalks need to be easy to find so you can remove them towards the end of cooking.
We used our cast iron dish, which comes with a lid; you can use a lidded casserole dish or cover it with kitchen foil instead. Slow cook in the oven for 1hr 30.
Whilst it's cooking, why not have a go at making your own loaf of bread to go with it!
Remove lid and herb stems, stir through 2 tablespoon of olive oil and cook for another 20-30 minutes without the lid.
Serve
Serve up your Croatian Lamb Peka straight from the dish with a loaf of crusty bread.
Sliced fresh bread is perfect for soaking up the flavoursome olive oil.
We love that this recipe has the whole meal in one, tender pieces of lamb, potatoes and plenty of vegetables all full of flavour from the garlic and herbs.
Lamb Recipes
If you love this Croatian lamb peka recipe, why not try out our lamb kebab, Slow Cooker Lmb Curry recipe or for another complete meal, try our Greek lamb kleftiko. We also have two great roast lamb recipes to choose from, both slow-roasted to perfection using a leg of lamb or shoulder of lamb.
Jo says
This was a hit all around the dinner table last night! The Lamb Peka was perfectly seasoned, love it!
Kay says
So glad you liked the recipe Jo 🙂
Thanks for the great feedback!!
Bintu | Budget Delicious says
This sounds so flavourful and delicious - we love lamb in our house so definitely giving this a try!
Kay says
Bintu, hope you enjoy this recipe 🙂
Thanks for the comment!!
Nathan says
What temperature do you cook it on?
Kay says
Hi Nathan, Cook in the oven at 200°C/400°F. Enjoy!
phil says
We had a Peka meal recently in Croatia. It was amazing. They (our Villa hosts) used Veal and Chicken along with Potatoes, Carrots and Onions. The slight additions they used were a large dollop (or dollops) of fat to cook the meat in - a bit like Goose Fat and Vegeta 'Nature' seasoning for the potatoes. The children came back for seconds, as did everyone else! The meat was really good meat and we were all thoroughly stuffed!
Joe says
I will be trying this recipe out tonight, will let you know how it goes 🙂
Kay says
Look forward to hearing back from you Joe!
Britt says
This dish was delicious! I substituted the lamb for chicken and it was the most tender chicken my family has ever eaten! I would recommend adding the wine before the oil mixture so that the oil mixture sits better on the meat. I also used a Pyrex dish with aluminum foil as a cover in the oven because I did not have a large enough oven-safe cast iron pan. I'm not sure if my vegetables and chicken portions were just exceedingly large, but I found that my serving size was about 6 or 7 people, as we had a large amount of leftovers with 4 people.
Kay says
Hi Britt
Thank you for your comment:)
So glad to hear good feedback and you all enjoyed this Peka recipe!
We haven't made it with chicken yet but I will defo be trying this in the future 😉
Lyosha says
everything looks so very delicious! I absolutely love it! I definitely want to try it for myself one day
Kay says
Please give it a go, it is delicious !
Rosey says
Why do you recommend bunching the herbs instead of scattering them? Just curious. This looks like a great holiday recipe.
Kay says
Our first time making we scattered the herbs. Which works fine with most herbs but we found if you use Rosemary or Thyme (twiggy herbs) you end up with the twigs scattered around and have to fish them out at the end!
Sarah M says
Yummy! This recipe looks so delicious to try. Thanks for sharing step by step guide.
Kay says
Our pleasure, next time we will do a video too!
Cris says
Oh, yes please! This looks amazingly delicious!
Kay says
The lamb is so soft and tender!
Peter Nyiri says
I like outdoor cooking and the choice of Lamb, Octopus, Chicken, Veal or Fish is really interesting. I don't think I want to try Octopus.
Kay says
That is next on my list!! It is so versatile you can do whatever you wish 😉
Marie Phillips says
This looks amazing! We all love lamb chops especially. And all of my kids love just about every kind of veggie! This would be a winning dish for us.
Kay says
Hi Marie
Thank you for your comment
Hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we all did, we love lamb one of our family favourites!!
Nyxie says
This not only looks beautiful but also sounds beautiful. I really shouldn't read foodie blogs when hungry because now I'm starving!
Thank you for sharing.
Kay says
Hi Nyxie
Thanks for your comment
Hope you enjoy if you make this recipe!!
Jackie Gonzalez says
Hi! Could you do this in a slow cooker?
Luke and Kay says
Hi Jackie
We have never cooked our lamb peka in the slow cooker, but we will give it a try soon, if you have already cooked in the slow cooker i would love to know how it turned out ?
Hope you enjoy the recipe 🙂
Monica says
This looks and sounds so delicious! My husband and I will have to try it some time!
Kay says
Hi Monica
Thanks for your comment
Hope you enjoy this recipe!!
emil says
Nice lamb.
I think I will try this recipe.
Kay says
Let us know how you get on!
Jessica kokoszki says
This looks absolutely delicious. I love lamb!
Kay says
Lamb is our favourite too! We want to try it out using Octopus next time!